REFLECTION BY BRUSHWOOD SENIOR PROGRAM DIRECTOR
Lake County Community Convening
By Ashley Cullen-Williams
The Lake County Community Foundation Cross-Sector Coordinated Calls bring together partners from across Lake County — nonprofits, local governments, health systems, schools, and community leaders — to share real-time updates, resources, and strategies that support community safety and stability during moments of heightened risk and ICE raids.
These calls are flexible and open to all. Participants can join as capacity allows people to share information, access support, or simply stay informed. The space serves as a central hub for accurate information, communication, and regional strategy, helping ensure that our community stays connected and coordinated.
I have opened and closed each session with a grounding moment and brief reflection that connects our present challenges to lessons and strengths from the past. This practice helps root the call in healing, dignity, and shared purpose.
At the heart of this effort is a commitment to protecting the safety, dignity, and stability of all Lake County residents — physically, emotionally, and economically — especially in times of uncertainty or danger.
Here are my October welcome remarks:
The First Welcome shared on October 23, 2025
Good morning everyone —
To our nonprofit leaders, our government partners, our educators, and every community member here — welcome.
Your presence today means something. It means that even in times of fear, you chose connection. Even in times of division, you chose community.And even when our people are being targeted, detained, and displaced — you chose courage.
Because right now, we are living in a season of fear. ICE raids. Deportations. Families separated in the middle of the night. Children are growing up afraid to call this land home.
But for many of us grounded in the Black experience — we’ve known this kind of terror before. We know what it means to have your existence criminalized, your family torn apart, and your humanity questioned. And yet, our ancestors showed us that fear can never silence a people rooted in love and liberation.
In the 1960s, young organizers created the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee — SNCC.
They weren’t just marching — they were teaching. They trained local people to register voters, taught strategy, and built “freedom schools” where political education became the pathway to power.
Lesson one: When we understand how power works, we learn how to change it. Education is the first act of freedom.Then came the Black Panther Party. They didn’t wait for systems to save them — they created what their people needed. Free breakfast programs. Community health clinics. Legal aid. They turned compassion into infrastructure.
Lesson two: Liberation isn’t charity — it’s self-determination. When systems fail, we build what we need with dignity and love. And both movements — SNCC and the Panthers — built coalitions. They worked alongside Latino, Indigenous, Asian, and poor white organizers because they understood — no one is free until everyone is free.
Lesson three: Solidarity is our greatest protection. Fear isolates; community liberates.
Those lessons still live here — in our work, in our neighborhoods, and in this very room.
- Educate for Liberation.
Create spaces where people can learn their rights, study systems, and imagine new ones. Political education must be part of every program. - Build What We Need.
Food security, healing spaces, youth employment, housing — when we build for ourselves, we move from survival to sovereignty. - Heal as We Organize.
The revolution must include rest, art, therapy, and joy — because collective care is a form of resistance. - Protect and Empower Our Youth.
Just as SNCC trusted young voices, we must let our youth lead — not someday, but today. - Build Real Power Together.
Nonprofits, government, and community — we must share power, not just tables. Collaboration means shared accountability, shared vision, and shared humanity.
So today, we gather not in despair — but in defiance of it. We come from people who were watched and followed — but never broken. We come from movements that fed children when the state would not. We come from organizers who risked everything to make freedom a living word. If the Black Panthers could build clinics when hospitals refused us, if SNCC could teach democracy under threat,then surely we can build belonging in the face of ICE and injustice.
Because fear is how systems control us. But community — real, organized, loving community — that’s how we win.
So welcome, family.
Welcome to a gathering of courage. Welcome to the continuation of a long, sacred struggle. And welcome to the work of building the beloved community — one act of truth, one table of unity, one generation of freedom at a time.
Let’s get to work.
